U.S., India take steps toward a chillier relationship

Thursday

Jan 9, 2014 at 12:01 AMJan 9, 2014 at 11:16 AM

WASHINGTON - The U.S. energy secretary postponed a visit to India yesterday, while New Delhi ordered the U.S. Embassy to close a club for expatriate Americans, as a worsening diplomatic dispute exposed fault lines between the world's two most-populous democracies.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. energy secretary postponed a visit to India yesterday, while New Delhi ordered the U.S. Embassy to close a club for expatriate Americans, as a worsening diplomatic dispute exposed fault lines between the world’s two most-populous democracies.

Furious at the arrest, handcuffing and strip search of its deputy consul in New York last month, India has reacted by curtailing privileges offered to U.S. diplomats. The officer, Devyani Khobragade, was accused by prosecutors of underpaying her nanny and lying on a visa application.

Nearly a month later, the dispute has started to affect the wider relationship between the countries, with two high-level visits by U.S. officials postponed.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Nisha Desai Biswal delayed her first visit to India, which had been scheduled for Monday, to avoid it becoming embroiled in the dispute.

Yesterday, the Energy Department said that Secretary Ernest Moniz no longer would travel to India as planned next week.

Both sides have said the relationship is important and will not be allowed to deteriorate — Washington needs New Delhi on its side as U.S. troops pull out of Afghanistan and as a counterbalance to a rising China. Millions of Indians have made the United States their home and bilateral trade is worth about $100 billion a year.

But the dispute has plunged the two countries into a crisis described by Indian media as the worst since New Delhi tested a nuclear device in 1998.

India stepped up the pressure yesterday ahead of a Monday court appearance where Khobragade could be indicted, ordering the U.S. Embassy in Delhi to stop receiving nondiplomats at an embassy club popular with expatriate Americans.

Americans working in the Indian capital have been frequenting the club for decades. An Indian government source said the club should not be offering services to non-diplomats when it has tax-free status.

India already had curtailed privileges offered to U.S. diplomats to bring them in line with the treatment of Indian envoys to the United States. Since December, the U.S. ambassador in Delhi can be subjected to airport frisking and most consular staff have reduced levels of immunity.